#OpenTheseDoors: A Movement to Turn New York’s Closed Churches into Shelters
When the archdiocese of New York announced in 2014 that it would begin closing parishes…
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Distant Churches and the Isolated Poor: Lessons from Katrina, Ten Years Later
In 1995, the first of the Left Behind series was published—a hugely successful franchise that…
Read MoreWhy Isn’t Ferguson the Start of a New Civil Rights Movement?
The news out of Ferguson has been dominated by discussions of police brutality and the…
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Can Atheist Billboards Kill Religion?
Billboards, rallies, biting commentary—all this is meant to deconstruct the cultural worlds framing sacred texts and ideas, and to do deep damage to the stronghold religion has on life in the United States. I’m in favor of billboards, as well as other organized efforts to advance progressive values and life-affirming ethics. Why should theists alone be allowed to present their ideas in grand ways? The anger coming from theists when confronted with the absurdity behind some of their own faith commitments shouldn’t silence non-theists, and it doesn’t require special handling by public figures.
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Immigration Reform: A Country Divided, Or a Richer Society?
With the Obama administration’s renewed support for immigration reform, and new support from conservative Christian leaders, immigrants’ rights activists are looking toward real progress—and their vision is supported by recent scholarship in the intersection of religion and immigration.
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RDPulpit: No Time for Lukewarm Economic Reform
New dimensions of criminality and injustice in the world of finance are revealed every day. So why are religious progressives—who know a thing or two about revelation—still posing, equivocating, and trimming around the edges while poor people suffer at the hands of a predator elite?
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By the Way: A Radically Conservative “Faith-Based Initiative”
Obama’s Bush-era strategy of using taxpayer money for faith-based social services not only risks infusing politics into religion, but also denies religious groups their traditional responsibility for caring for those in need—with their own funds.
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